Vinnie Rossi's much anticipated battery-power tube preamp cum DAC is nearing its first official sighting at the upcoming Montreal hifi and home entertainment show.

Or as the man put it: "This has been a ton of work but it is coming out (and sounds) awesome! Hopefully we'll be in production soon. Realistically, probably not until the end of April. There are just a few more things to wrap up but I will have the prototype unit in use at the Montreal show next week. Just wanted to give you a peek :-)"

With the above the hand-out for the show, the stage is set for the Vinnster to make a splash with his first very own low-level active component. Needless to say, expectations are high based on his successful Signature 30.2 and 70.2 amps which forced his company to scale up operations significantly.

Hard-boiled cynics would counter that just because you've issued a killer amplifier doesn't mean you've got the moxy to do the same for a preamplifier. Especially one that contains glowing bits from a man who hasn't used them before. This merely makes this launch all the more exciting. To quote Hamlet, will it, or will it not, deliver what those who know and love his Signature amps anticipate it could, would or should? If Paul Candy can make it to the show, he'll be the first moon man to report back initial impressions. "On April 4th - 6th, we will be exhibiting at the Festival Son & Image Expo in the heart of downtown Montreal. Please visit us in Room 907, along with Omega Loudspeakers and Hudson Audio Imports. We will have a pre-production Isabella preamp (with DAC) running into a Signature 30.2 power amp and feeding Omega SuperHemp Alnicos! For sources, we'll have a turntable by Scheu Analog, a CD transport by Blue Note as well as a Macbook (running USB to the Isabella's built-in converter). We hope to see many of you there!"

The pricing is $4000 for the Isabella, $5,500 with the inbuilt DAC. "The pricing is higher than I was initially aiming for but I'm very confident that the Isabella competes with the finest sounding preamps regardless of price. The build-in non-oversampling DAC option is also stunning. Very "non-digital" sound and with the USB-direct-to-I²S interface, the DAC is a sweet dream for anyone with a music server such as a MacBook. Here are more Isabella details: